The risk of making terrorism a criminal matter

We are a nation at war. The near bombing of Northwest 253 on Christmas day serves as a stark reminder that this is not some foreign conflict, but rather one that essentially contains many fronts that all arrive on our streets eventually. It is the men and women in law enforcement and the intelligence community that are tasked with a difficult duty of allowing no margin for error. As witnessed in the Christmas day incident, it took just one lapse in the system to jeopardize the lives of nearly 300 people aboard that plane.


We face an enemy that is by all standards, an anomaly. Without an Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida will still live on. Without Al-Qaida, the war against jihadists will still remain. There is no domino effect in this to eliminate the motivations of this enemy.


While the intelligence community is under scrutiny for its shortcomings with the Christmas day plot, there is a much greater vulnerability in our system that is inadequate at handling terrorism cases. With the Obama administration's move to put terrorists like Abdulmutallab or Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in American courtrooms, the natural pattern will be that they will end up in American jails eventually. This ultimately may benefit the spread of the jihadists and will most certainly place severe strains on the corrections system.


One does not need to look far to see the impacts of housing jihadists among general population prisons. In the UK, a study by the Quilliam Foundation found severe lapses inside jails that housed radical Islamists. Among those listed:

"Prominent pro Al-Qaida ideologues such as Abu Qatada have been able to smuggle messages out of prison to their supporters"

"In 2008 and 2009, two of the most prominent Arab jihadists imprisoned in the UK released pro-jihadist propaganda and fatwas from within Long Lartin prison"

"..a leader of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, produced written pro-jihadist tracts from within prison aiming to refute criticism of Al-Qaida, while Abu Qatada issued fatwas from within prison which legitimised jihadist attacks worldwide"


In 2006, Belmarsh jail in the UK was reportedly "taken over" by a Muslim gang called "The Muslim Boys." The group reportedly attacked those who failed to convert to Islam with everything from hot water to razor blades attached to brushes. Guards also fell victim to attacks during the group's weekly "religious meetings." At the services being held, guards sat idly by not understanding a word said by Al-Qaida members housed in the jail. There was significant concern that the group may have been capable of using such a time to discuss plots. One official stated,

"We can't even tape the service and get it translated because it is against human rights. It's frightening."

At a separate prison, Whitemoor, a similar report in May 2008 found almost identical concerns amongst staff who reported that the nearly 200 Muslim prisoners had become "more of a gang than a religious group." Both reports addressed fears that jihadists housed inside the facilities were actively recruiting members from within the prison population.


The simple fact is that prisons are made up of a diverse community that are all commonly linked by their criminality. The potential to exploit anger of a common criminal towards the American justice system by a jihadist remains. If these people enter back on the streets after being indoctrinated with a hatred for a government that put them in a jail and a belief that Islam calls for them to wage jihad on America, we are adding to the enemy rather than containing it. This is not a question of denying people rights, but rather doing what is best to stop the spread of radical Islam. By treating jihadists as separate militants and isolating them from a general population, we are eliminating their potential to breed more militants. Without containment the jobs of all those involved in the fight on terrorism expands even greater, allowing the potential for more Abdulmutallabs to slip through the cracks.